The State Duma proposed to allow the payment of salaries when the account is blocked
[ad_1]
Suspension of operations on the account should not concern the payment of salaries to employees. Such a draft amendment to the Tax Code (TC) was developed by Vladislav Davankov, Vice Speaker of the State Duma from the New People party. The document (“Vedomosti” got acquainted with it) was sent for review to the government. MP proposes to amend Art. 76 of the Tax Code (suspension of operations on bank accounts, as well as transfers of electronic funds of organizations and individual entrepreneurs).
The deputy proposes to prescribe an exception for carrying out operations on the account in case of its blocking – in particular, to give priority in the order of fulfillment of obligations for paying salaries to employees. In addition, the draft law proposes to allow the fulfillment of obligations under agreements concluded before the suspension of operations on accounts. Now, according to Art. 76 of the Tax Code, the freezing of account transactions does not apply to payments, the order of execution of which precedes the obligation to pay taxes, fees, insurance premiums, as well as to pay taxes, fees, insurance premiums, penalties and fines. Thus, the deputy proposes to make the starting point, after which there may be exceptions for payments under old agreements, not the date of tax payment, but the date of blocking the account.
He also proposes to oblige the tax authorities to send the taxpayer a notice of failure to comply with the obligation to submit a tax return no later than 14 days before the decision to suspend operations (now this is a right, not an obligation of the tax authorities).
The blocking of accounts is a sanction for late payment of taxes or submission of tax returns, as a result, the activity becomes almost impossible, the deputy believes. Today, the burden on entrepreneurs is enormous and some simply do not have time to file a tax return, says Davankov: “Blocking accounts paralyzes a company: it cannot make calculations and even pay salaries. Therefore, we propose to warn entrepreneurs in advance about the deadlines for filing a declaration, and send a personal notification two weeks before blocking.” At this time, the company should be able to fulfill contractual obligations and pay salaries to employees, he emphasizes.
This bill has not yet been submitted to the Ministry of Finance for consideration, a spokesman for the ministry said. Vedomosti sent a request to the Federal Tax Service.
Supply risks
In fact, payments for the payment of wages to employees belong to the same queue with payments for the payment of taxes, fees and contributions, and, accordingly, the execution of such payments should not be blocked, except in cases where the request of the tax authority was received before the order for the transfer of wages, and on the account there are not enough funds, says Zoya Galeeva, managing partner of the Troubled Assets Center. In the absence of debts in the payment of taxes and fees, the suspension of operations on the account for another reason does not affect the ability to pay wages, she adds. At the same time, subject to the adoption of the law, the presence or absence of arrears in the payment of taxes and fees will not affect the possibility of paying wages from a blocked account, that is, the law will expand the corresponding opportunity, Galeeva believes.
Now the Tax Code, in the event of blocking a taxpayer’s account, allows you to perform operations aimed at fulfilling obligations to pay taxes, fees, insurance premiums, as well as operations to debit funds to pay advance tax payments, says Yury Fedyukin, managing partner of the law firm Enterprise Legal Solutions . “As you can see, payments related to the payment of wages do not fall into the exhaustive list of exceptions. At the same time, debts to employees, including those formed in the event of non-payment of severance pay, in the event of blocking accounts, can lead to such unpleasant consequences as criminal liability with a penalty of 500,000 rubles. fine or imprisonment for up to three years. These, by the way, are more than real risks, taking into account practice,” the expert says. The blocking of the account at the initiative of the tax authority can be made on the basis of erroneous calculations, which will not allow to avoid criminal liability, says Fedyukin, adding that he supports such amendments.
The current version of the draft law is unlikely to be adopted, Anton Zykov, partner of the tax and law department at DRT, believes: “The ability to fulfill obligations under agreements concluded before the suspension of operations on accounts contains a high risk of abuse by unscrupulous taxpayers.” Nevertheless, there is room for improvement in the code, the expert adds: “In particular, the idea of sending taxpayers notifications about the deadline for filing a declaration deserves attention, in order to enable them to quickly correct themselves, file a declaration and avoid blocking.”
Suspension of operations on the account is also applied in the event of a tax offense or the presence of tax debt, Galeeva notes. The bill does not share the reasons for the suspension of operations on the account and actually provides the right to unlimitedly dispose of funds on a blocked account, making payments under “old contracts”, the expert points out.
[ad_2]
Source link